19
Like any student who listened dutifully during English
class, you know all about run-of-the-mill punctuation
marks like hyphens, exclamation marks, ellipses and
semicolons. But you may not know that there are quite
a few obscure punctuation marks that are just waiting
to make it into your next essay, email or tweet. Here
are some that you can try out in your next message:
The interrobang was invented by savvy advertiser
Martin K Speckter, who wanted a neater way than
!? to express excitement, disbelief or indicate
rhetorical questions.
It can be quite hard to convey tone in any form of
written communication, especially when it comes
to the fine art of sarcasm. To put an end to
countless wasted sarcastic quips, Sarcasm, Inc
came up with the SarcMark, a little squiggle that
denotes when a statement might be needling the
person or thing that it’s about.
The question comma and exclamation comma
were patented in the early 1990s for those who
wished to ask questions or express excitement
in the middle of a sentence without having to end it.
For those who find that the excessive use of
exclamation marks gives them an eye-twitch,
the ElRey might be the mark for you. It made
its debut as a handy punctuation mark to use
when you’re excited, but not overexcited.
Rather than dotting your ‘i’s with hearts to mark
romantic statements, try using French author
Hervé Bazin’s invention, the Love Point.
!,
Obscure punctuation
KEEP ANNE
GINGER
A publisher has landed
themselves in the spotlight
for the wrong reasons after
releasing a new edition of
L M Montgomery’s Anne of
Green Gables that pictures
the feisty heroine on the cover
as a buxom teenage blonde.
The book, available through
Amazon, features a reimagined
Anne as a plaid-wearing,
freckle-free blonde reclining
seductively over bales of hay.
Considering that Anne is known
for her red hair, freckles and thin
frame, fans of Montgomery’s
series were outraged at the
changes, even setting up online
‘Keep Anne ginger’ petitions.
Fans vented their frustrations
on the new edition by noting
that Anne’s red hair is a key part
of her character and that she is
only 10 years old at the start of
the series – and not a curvy
teenager. The edition of the
book earned hundreds of
one-star
reviews before
it was listed as
temporarily out
of stock, but
some believe it
has been
permanently
withdrawn
after the public
outcry.
20
GOOD READING APRIL 2013